Please take a moment and make a financial contribution to TheFunded. If we have helped you, help us with resources to further grow the both the site and our entrepreneur training program, The Founder Institute.

Posted by
rocketmike72
on 2008-10-15

PUBLIC:

I pitched to Mark Suster, who I guess is new there. He was a great person to speak with. Really supportive, dug into the heart of our business even though I know other partners at GRP know our industry better. I could just tell this guy was an entrepreneur who knew what it was truly like day in and day out.

Posted by
jasonlk
on 2007-10-04

PUBLIC:

Know Mark reasonably well from Koral and Salesforce. No idea how he'll be during a deal, but afterwards, he should be great. He knows firsthand all the phases of start-up success -- and challenges. And he knows SaaS and on-demand from all perspectives, and he knows most everyone in the space. His intros and insights for us have always been spot-on and highly valuable. He's not afraid to push hard for a company or a partner that he feels strongly about.

Posted by
anon
on 2007-06-29

PUBLIC:

I have worked with this team for six years. I have dealt with three of the partners on a regular basis. These folks are not typical venture guys -- they are very savvy, have strong operational and finance experience and extremely comfortable dealing with the complexity of growing a business. As an entrepenuer I was incredibly well served by them. They are extremely well connected in the banking and retail sectors and they did not just open up their address books they drove the meetings with customers and potential business partners. Lots of common sense, lots of experience and lots of good down to earth advice. The partners arent guys who worked their way up through the venture business. They all have practical hands on experience in finance, banking and operations. I would invest in thier funds and I would gladly work with them again.

Pitched these guys a few months ago. They liked the concept. After a 3 hour initial meeting, we spent the next several weeks refining our financial model at their request. Ultimately, they didn't buy in to the size of our potential market/exit value, so the deal didn't happen. But they were helpful, relatively responsive, professional and courteous at all times. I can't tell you what they'd be like after closing, but I would have liked to find out as I believe that they would have brought valuable operational experience in addition to their money. On the whole, I'm very positive about these guys. One negative - their initial response was so enthusiastic that it seemed we were much closer to a deal than we actually were. I'm used to the standard VC bluff and bluster, but this was beyond that, which made it all the more disappointing when they passed. But all in all, the two partners I met were good guys, smart, and insightful.

Posted by
philippeb
on 2010-02-06

PUBLIC:

I was approached by Dave Lin who has a fair amount of experience in media and technology although the company's typical focus has been retail. I sent my exec summary and we scheduled a meeting which Yves Sisteron (The managing partner) was supposed to attend. He never made the meeting and I never got the opportunity to formally present. Instead Dave and I went to lunch, Yves did join us later and we got to chat informally. They passed on the deal a few weeks later. I believe they are competent and by VC standard, fairly attentive although they did not really get into the detail of my company before turning us down. Perhaps just not a good fit.

Posted by
sbceo
on 2009-10-27

PUBLIC:

We met Mark Suster through a mutual friend and also from VentureNet last fall. He went right to the basics of market opportunity and team. No time wasted on insignificant details. He immediately traveled to spend two days with our team, including spending one-on-one time with our engineers. Their diligence process was very thorough, and included interviewing customers and prospects. Mark and Steven have a low tolerance for BS. But they're smart and well-connected, and they're guys you want in your court. They negotiated with us fairly during difficult market conditions and did not overly exert their leverage. We had multiple financing options, but it was a consensus across our board to go with GRP. Post-investment, Mark has continued to work hard, travel to meet with us, make high-quality introductions, actively promote the company, and generally work like they're still trying to win the deal. We can reach him nearly 24/7 on any issue that's important to the company. No regrets here. Building a company in partnership with investors is difficult. Mark is still an entrepreneur at heart, and GRP's value add is real as a result.

Posted by
endicott
on 2008-05-01

PUBLIC:

GRP came into our company at the seed round stage, with Steven Dietz joining our board. Very direct, very intelligent, very helpful. From the beginning, he has been a source of excellent advice. He guided me through a gnarly issue with a potential seed round investor who had unrealistic expecations of board participation. He gave excellent advice in the area of early-stage cap table management, aligning management team incentives with the desired outcome (a solid A round pre-money valuation). He wisely encouraged me to slow down the pace of product extensions so as not to get too far ahead of ourselves.

At the A round, Steven was a tireless advocate on our behalf, starting with his support within GRP and helping us find a second syndicate partner to join in the $7M A. By the time the process was over, we had 4 VC's chasing that second spot-- in large part because of GRP's active support.

Others within GRP have also helped, especially Mark Suster, who made some key VC introductions.

The GRP team has proven extremely helpful on a number of fronts, and I look forward to his guidance as we progress.

Posted by
scottdunlap
on 2008-03-31

PUBLIC:

I hadn't heard of GRP before pitching them our Series C. They all came to the first meeting and dug in deep. They are an interesting mix of skills - the Stephens understand broader retail trends, while Mark Suster went right into bounce rates, visit times, and details. They low-balled the valuation (the lowest of 12 VC's we talked to), and cited that as the reason they didn't want to invest.